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Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Coffee with Coconut Cream

I love cream. However, I sometimes go through phases of lactose intolerance that prevent me from eating it. This leads to an issue when I drink coffee: what do I add to it if not cream?

I've tried all kinds of non-dairy creamers: almond milk, rice milk, soy milk. I didn't like any of them. If they didn't taste chemical they were just too... well, milky. I started drinking my coffee black.

I'm doing the lactose-free thing right now, so I thought it was a perfect time to experiment with something new: coconut cream. It's what I use for most of my other cream substitutes, so why not coffee creamer? I use it in my gluten-free vegan scone recipe and it works beautifully. It's the only thing I've found that has all the properties of cream that I like: the richness, the smoothness, the slight sweetness.

Well, I'm here to inform you that it works. It doesn't whiten the coffee as much as I expected, and it thickens the coffee just slightly. It leaves a slight aftertaste which is not unpleasant. It lends a nice coconut aroma to the coffee. My only caution is to make sure the coconut cream is well stirred before adding - it can be chunky if not.

Coconut cream is my new dairy-free creamer of choice. Now to get all my favorite coffee shops to carry it! Perhaps I can bring my own?

What is your favorite non-dairy creamer? Is there something else I should try?

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comments:

I too resort to Black coffee most of the time. I will have to try the coconut cream idea. My only thought is what to do with the rest of the can, or how best to preserve it for daily use. Freezing individual use cubes in a tray probably would result in the milk chunks.

Yes :) coconut milk or cream is lovely in coffee or chai type tea!I've also used coconut oil - which was a suggested way of getting those good medium chain fats! One thought for 'bringing your own' to coffee shops - freeze some in an ice cube tray, & put the cubes in individual zip lock bags - easy to transport! I've been working on a local coffeeshop - trying to get them to offer GF selections of goodies, if they're going to a post 'don't bring your own food or drinks - we sell those!' sign! blank looks when I ask what's GF besides the (out of season, not local) fruit . . . .